The present invention relates to a monitoring system for maintaining and inspecting valves attached to various pipe arrangements, traps such as a steam trap and a gas trap, or various facilities installed in various factories, such valves including a pressure reducing valve, a safety valve, an automatic control valve, and a directional control check valve. The present invention relates particularly to a monitoring system with a built-in power supply, which is capable of reducing expenses used to install the monitoring system and obtaining a stable output result of monitoring.
Plant facilities such as various rotating machines and driving machines, and valves for controlling the flows of various fluids have been mounted in large numbers on production sites in various factories. These facilities and valves have been constantly or periodically inspected and monitored for their operating conditions according to the degree of their importance in order to obtain the maximum volume of production with the minimum energy of consumption and maintain the maximum quality of production.
As the conventional monitoring system, one has generally been used which senses physical quantities such as temperatures, pressure, and vibrations to be monitored, compares each sensed value with a predetermined reference value, and observes a change in each sensed value with time, thereby making a decision or determination as to whether an object to be monitored normally operates or is brought into a possibility that the object will lead to a failure in near future.
In the conventional monitoring system, a commercial source used through a general electrical wire or line, a photocell, that is, a solar battery, or a thermal power-generating element or device, etc. have been used as driving sources for a sensor unit, an arithmetic display unit, etc.
The monitoring system using the commercial source of the conventional driving sources is accompanied by a problem in that the electrical wire is made long in distance and becomes complex, thereby increasing its cost, a problem in that the photocell cannot obtain a sufficient electromotive force at night or indoors and the electromotive force is reduced with smudges of the surface of a light-receiving panel, or a problem in that the thermal power-generating device cannot obtain a stable electromotive force at all times.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an advanced monitoring system capable of providing less installation expenses and obtaining a stable output result of monitoring for a predetermined period to thereby make it possible to reliably confirm operating conditions of various facilities and valves.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a monitoring system, comprising a sensor unit for sensing one or plural of physical quantities such as temperatures, pressure, and vibrations, which are objects to be monitored, an arithmetic display unit for making a decision or determination, based on the value sensed by the sensor unit, as to whether an object to be monitored normally operates or is brought into a possibility that the object will lead to a failure in near future, and a driving power supply incorporated in at least one of the sensor unit, the arithmetic display unit and a coupling portion for coupling the sensor unit and the arithmetic display unit to each other by wire or radio. Thus, a power supply is incorporated into a point where an electrical wire is maximized in length and becomes complex, to thereby omit the electrical wire, and a power supply is built in a point where a stablest drive source is required, whereby installation expenses can be reduced and a predetermined stable result of monitoring can be obtained.